29: Alfred and Sally Ann Carpenter Cronk

Alfred Cronk and his wife Sally Ann Carpenter had ten children, including one set of twins, between 1835 and 1857. Alfred and Sally were born exactly one month apart in the year 1814. She was the daughter of Josiah Carpenter, a wheelwright, and Jane Remington. He was the son of James Cronk.

In 1850, Alfred was a farmer. At age 35, the couple already had seven children.

1850 US Federal Census

By 1860, one of the Cronks' children - Antoinetta or "Annett" as she is called on her gravestone - had married and had a child. This child was born only a year after Alfred and Sally's youngest child, Oscar. It must have been strange for Antoinetta to have a child who was about the same age as her brother - or maybe not. In the nineteenth century it was a lot more common than it is today to see mothers and daughters pregnant at the same time.

1860 US Federal Census

Sally A. Carpenter Cronk died on November 12, 1869, and her death was recorded in the mortality schedules of the 1870 US Federal Census. These schedules really are fascinating. You can see all the people who died in the past year, how old they were, and what they died of. Sally died of typhoid fever. At age 55, she is actually one of the older people in this section of the list. Quite a few were children, as you would expect. Others were young adults. Causes of death included childbirth, cancer, consumption, heart disease, measles, and "inflammation of brain" - perhaps caused by head trauma? It's easy to imagine a nineteenth-century farmer like Mr. McDonald getting kicked in the head by a horse.

1870 US Federal Mortality Schedules

Meanwhile, the widowed Alfred Cronk was living with a family of Reynoldses. He died in 1887.

1870 US Federal Census

This was the obituary of Alfred Cronk:

Mr. Alfred Cronk died on Tuesday morning, Dec. 30th, at the residence of his son, Mr. Wesley Cronk, in this village. He was 70 years of age, and the cause of his death was apoplexy. He was a native of the town of Somers, but for some time past he has lived in Mt. Kisco. He was twice married, his first wife being a daughter of Mr. Josiah Carpenter, of Sing Sing, and his second wife was a Mrs. Barnes, of New Castle. He leaves five sons and two daughters (all children by his first wife) - William and Wesley (twins), John, and Carpenter Cronk; Oscar, who lives in New York; Emma, wife of Wm. Van Wyck; and Tillie, wife of Wm. Avery, of South Salem. 

What about the Cronks' children?

Amy J. Cronk was born 1835.

Antoinetta Cronk, who was born in 1838, married George Schesler and had a son, George. Sadly, she died in 1866 at the age of 28. Her gravestone gives her name as "Annett" Cronk, wife of George Schesler. Due to the difficulty the census-takers had with the name Schesler (the 1860 census-taker spelled it "Chesley") I've had a hard time tracking down George and George Jr. after Antoinetta's death.

Grave of Antoinetta or Annett Cronk Schesler

Charles W. Cronk, born in 1841, was a shoemaker. On October 2, 1861, he enlisted in the 59th New York Infantry Regiment, Company I. He was wounded in the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, and thereafter went missing from the hospital where he was taken. He died on December 1, 1865, and his gravestone reads "Our Brother."


Andrea Cronk was born around 1842.

John A. Cronk, born in 1843, enlisted in the Civil War a year after his brother did, at the age of 18. He joined the 6th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment and was appointed a corporal in 1865.

After the war, John first worked as a farm hand, then as the superintendent of Oakwood Cemetery for more than 20 years. He married a woman named Maria, and they had two children.

John and Maria's son George Irving Cronk, who was born in 1879, was a sheet metal worker, as was his son Frank. I wonder if he worked for or with my great-grandfather, who owned a sheet metal shop in the same town, and incidentally was born the same year.

William Cronk was born in 1849.

Wesley Mortimer Cronk was William's twin. He married Esther Mead Banks in 1867, and they had eleven children, only seven of whom were living in 1900. Wesley worked in a shoe factory and later as a house painter. In 1903, Esther died, and in 1905, Wesley married Hannah, a widow whose only child had died. In 1910, Wesley's son Wesley Mortimer Cronk Jr. filed a patent for a combined elevator cage and scale. Wesley Jr. also had a son Wesley Mortimer Cronk, an engineer who died in 2007. You can read Wesley Cronk III's obituary, which states that he was predeceased by his son Wesley Mortimer Cronk IV.

Carpenter J. Cronk was born in 1852 and also worked in a shoe factory. He married a woman named Matilda and had a daughter, Eliza. He died in 1897.

Matilda Cronk was born in 1853 and married William Avery.

Oscar Cronk was born in 1857.

Most popular names
Wesley Mortimer (4)
George (3)
William (2)

Surnames used as first names: Wesley Mortimer Cronk (x4), Everett M. Cronk, Carpenter J. Cronk

1. Alfred Cronk (1814-1887) m. Sally Ann Carpenter (1814-1869)
1. Amy J. Cronk (1835-)
2. Antoinetta Cronk (1838-1866) m. George Schesler (1834-)
1. George A. Schesler (1858-)
3. Charles W. Cronk (1841-1865)
4. Andrea Cronk (1842-)
5. John A. Cronk (1843-) m. Maria (1850-) in 1866
1. Frank V. Cronk (1876-1937)
2. George Irving Cronk (1879-1959) m. Jennie G. Reynolds (1879-1960) in 1900
1. Frank G. Cronk (1901-1961) m. Gladys Dakin (1907-)
1. Douglas Cronk (1937-)
2. John Cronk (1939-)
2. Lela L. Cronk (1904-1964)
3. Douglas Cronk (1913-2003) m. Violet Beard (1912-2007)
6. William Cronk (1849-)
7. Wesley Mortimer Cronk (1849-) m. (1) Esther Mead Banks (1851-1903); (2) Hannah (1851-) in 1905
1. Gertrude Cronk (1873-)
2. Bertha Cronk (1875-)
3. Mildred E. Cronk (1877-)
4. Wesley Mortimer Cronk (1879-1934) m. (1) Ada R. (1879-); (2) Elizabeth M. Wolder (1893-)
1. Leonard Turner Cronk (1900-1957) m. Lillian Rausch (1905-)
1. Allen Cronk (1933-)
2. Ralph Cronk (1935-)
2. Everett M. Cronk (1907-) m. Elizabeth A. (1908-)
3. Margaret E. Cronk (1923-)
4. Wesley Mortimer Cronk (1926-2007) m. Frances
1. Wesley Mortimer Cronk
5. Myra Cronk (1883-)
6. William W. Cronk (1886-) m. Elizabeth Wall (1891-)
1. Kenneth Cronk (1917-)
2. Elizabeth M. Cronk (1920-)
7. Amy K. Kronk (1887-)
8. Carpenter J. Cronk (1852-1897) m. Matilda (1853-)
1. Eliza Cronk (1874-)
9. Matilda Cronk (1853-) m. William Avery
10. Oscar Cronk (1857-)